Spanish police arrest gang leader for €118,000 Nigerian email fraud

The leader of a criminal organisation guilty of the fraud of €118,000 through Nigerian “love letters” by sending mass e-mails to potential victims from his Madrid home in Valdemoro, has been arrested by Spanish police.

The news of the Nigerian fraud was shared on Twitter by the Spanish National Police, who tweeted:

“Police arrested leader of a network that scammed €118,000 from 2 people through #NigerianLetters in the modality known as #fraud of #love #Madrid.He sent mass emails 📧 to potential victims with whom he established a love link and then scammed them.”

🚩Detenido el cabecilla de una red que estafó 118.000€ a 2 personas mediante #CartasNigerianas en la modalidad conocida como #fraude del #amor #Madrid

Enviaba masivamente correos 📧 a potenciales víctimas con las que establecía un vínculo amoroso para después estafarlas pic.twitter.com/FV9gUOZIdf

— Policía Nacional (@policia) June 1, 2022

Credit: Twitter @policia

According to the full press release the first investigations took place when one of the victims in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid) reported having been defrauded over the Internet.

After making contact with a woman through social networks and establishing a love relationship with her, she was duped into making several bank transfers to Spanish and French accounts worth €48,000.

With this information, the police analysed the movements of the affected bank accounts and were able to determine that there was a complex procedure for hiding the funds; once the money was deposited, various operations were carried out to conceal it, such as withdrawals at ATMs, purchases of electronic devices and jewellery, as well as transfers to other bank accounts both in Spain and abroad.

During the Nigerian fraud investigation, Spanish police were able to identify another victim who was unaware that she was being swindled, who had transferred more than €70,000 to the now arrested man.

The suspect was finally located and arrested in a flat in Valdemoro (Madrid). Following the search of his home, investigators seized several mobile terminals as well as various mass storage devices for subsequent study and analysis.

Other evidence of scams was also found, with texts of fraudulent investment and inheritance offers, as well as several lists with more than one million email addresses perfectly organised by language and ready to be targeted in a fraudulent email campaign.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.